Philip Chelf and Barbara Chelf were baptismal sponsors for Michael (in 1768), a son of Barbara’s brother, Michael Yager. In 1770, Philip alone was a sponsor for Hanna, a daughter of Michael Yager and his wife Elizabeth Manspiel. On one more occasion in 1779, Philip was a sponsor, and this was for Johannes Böhme (later known as Beemon), the son of Daniel Böhme and his wife Nancy. Not a lot is known about Daniel and Nancy, but Johannes, their second child, of what was to be several, was born in 1779. Apparently, Nancy was a young woman. If she were about twenty, then she had been born in 1759.
My thought is that Nancy was a daughter of Philip Chelf, by Philip’s first, unknown, wife. Let’s look around at the evidence for or against this idea.
Barbara Yager’s family by Peter Clore included six children:
Adam, born ca 1748,
Solomon, born ca 1750,
Delilah, born ca 1750, who married Zacharias Broyles,
Moses, born ca 1756,
Susanna, born ca 1758, who married Daniel Railsback, and
Elizabeth, who became the first wife of Herman Wayman
Let’s look at more of the sponsors for the children of Daniel Böhme and Nancy ? . At the birth of their first born, Susanna, one sponsor was Delilia Broyles (see above). As mentioned above, Philip Chelf was a sponsor at the baptism of the second child Johannes. For the fourth child, who was Joshua, two of the sponsors were Herman Wayman and his wife (see above). At the baptism of Catharina, the fourth child, two sponsors are Johannes Yager and Margaret (Yager) Weaver. For Nancy, the fifth child, two of the sponsors have the name Yager. For Regina, the next, three of the sponsors have the name Yager. Remember that Barbara was born a Yager. For the next three there is little information in the sponsors.
At least two of the sponsors were directly connected to the family of Barbara Yager Clore. I believe this came about because Philip Chelf had children, or at least a child, which certainly included Nancy. Nancy was raised in the new home of Philip and Barbara, so that we had his, hers, and theirs. Nancy was close to her step-siblings, whom she chose to be sponsors at the birth of her children.
There may have been other children but Nancy is the only one known.
We are not finished with the Chelfs yet, and already I have introduced another family about whom I wish I knew more. The name Böhme always suggests to me an Anabaptist (i.e., Mennonite) origin because there were well-known Mennonites of this name. For this reason, I have wondered about Philip Chelf himself. Though he did attend the Lutheran church with Barbara, none of his children are baptized there. Did this fact bother Adam Yager, the father of Barbara?
(20 Jan 01)
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.